My Tips For Writing

Characters

Characters. It's one of the most important things in writing, but also know of the most difficult to come up with/do/whatever you wanna call it.

Once I read that to make your characters believable, you should become your character for a day. For this you need to know some important things.
1. Dress like your character. What does your character wear? Maybe they like to wear jeans and a t-shirt. Well, dress like that! Even if that's not how you dress every day. Just become your character. Walk in their shoes. Literally-well, almost.

2. Eat like your character. If your mom, or whoever cooks in your house makes something your character doesn't like, tell her to make something else. Politely, of course. Or maybe, if you know when you'll act as that character, tell her in advance so she makes something your character does like. And show that you like it. Also, at the table. How does your character sit at the table? Are they good-mannered? Or are they like pigs when eating?

3. Talk like your character. What country is your character from? That could change their accent. If you decide to talk like them, you should also talk in their same accent.
Example: I talk in American English, but my dad speaks British, so I know how to imitate a British accent more or less. And I have a character that's British, so if I wanted to become her for a day, that would come in handy.

4. Walk and move like your character. Does your character limp? If so, try to limp as well. Do they walk elegantly or clumsily? Imitate them! Besides helping your story be more realistic, it's fun! If your character is lame, try going around on a wheelchair if you have one, and if you don't, then maybe that not the perfect character to imitate.

5. Extras. Is your character blind? Put a blindfold on for the day, and pretend like you are too! But I warn you, it's hard. Is your character mute? Try not speaking for a whole day! I tried this just for fun, and I failed. Not even the whole morning! Is your character deaf? Well, this one's a little harder to imitate, but just put earphones on and pretend like you don't hear a thing.

Thinking up characters.
Thinking up characters has to be one of the hardest things to do. But there are some easy ways to do this.

Sometimes, if you have the plot you will get the characters. With my book, The Creation, I had the plot and then got the characters very quickly, since each had to fit perfectly with their Kingdom, some of them had a special something.

Other times, of you have the setting you will get your characters like this *snaps fingers*. For example, if you're writing about the Oregon Trail, your characters will be from that time. No one will have cell phones, or cars. Books and wagons are more appropriate. Unless you're writing a modern version do the Oregon Trail.

Other ways you can get characters is by observing people in real life. Or base them on a family member or a friend. Or combine different traits and characteristics.

Also, some people dream of someone and then use them as a character. Others are great at imagining characters from scratch. Many people have different ways, but find which one works for you and use it.

Hope this helped! I might do a chapter about characters part two.
Juli.